I have not posted in a long time. I am sorry. I sat down this morning to write some thoughts to you and ended up writing a lengthy essay. I am going to share it with you in hopes that it will encourage you and give you some insights on what we do here @ BU.
The last time there was a move of God at Boston University was about 150 years ago during the Great Awakening that swept the northeast. Since then BU has stood unmoved. In fact, no one has had a successful ministry at BU since then (or, for that matter, in Boston). Not InterVarsity, Campus Crusade or Chi Alpha. None of us have built a strong, large, self-sustaining ministry on this campus. If you were to put all the evangelicals in one room at BU we would number, maybe, 200. The campus population is 32,000, larger than 30% of the towns in Massachusetts. We are trying to do something here at BU and in Boston that has never been done before. We are truly, using a religious metaphor, breaking very hard ground.
I need to define 'hard ground'. The students here at BU are not apathetic, or angry, or aggressively against Christianity. In fact, it is very easy to be a Christian on campus right now. No one cares. Our Chi Alpha students encounter an occasional class that challenges their faith, but for the most part they can be Christians their entire four years at BU and never be hassled about it. No one cares. PreChristian students here at BU are bored and totally uninterested in God and the church. They never think about it.
So when ever we do something on campus that everyone can see, students are surprised, sometimes shocked, that Christians even exist on a major university like BU. When we give out hot chocolate, host a cafe or a game night, set up an information table we get the most perplexed stares from students, and of course the avoidance response - walking on the far side of the sidewalk or hallway to avoid any physical or eye contact with us.
We rarely get anyone to stop. Not because they are angry, but because they are uninterested and bored. In their minds, we have nothing to offer that would add value to their lives, in any way. So when I say that we a breaking hard ground, I mean ground that has never been cultivated, weeded, watered, rock-picked, or leveled. Nothing has been done in their lives to prepare them to be interested in the Gospel.
(I still assume that God has been doing some kind of work in everyone's lives to bring them closer to him, but God uses his people to do most of that work and, to be honest, we are quickly loosing the next few generations.)
Gene, Thomas and I work hard to get our Chi Alpha students to see the need around them, reach out to their friends and be Jesus to the campus. We are constantly examining what we do at BU. How do we represent Jesus as something vital to everyone's lives? What can we do to get students attention? How do we motivate our Chi Alpha students to see the campus as their mission field? What are the best tools to use to break up this field so that it is ready for planting, growth and harvest?
We did not chose an easy campus. We did not chose an easy city. God called us to the most unreached area of the United States. We are not leaving and we will never give up, but that doesn't mean we do not experience discouragement. Pray for us. We get discouraged. The lack of funding, the lack of interest and responses from the preChristian students, and the difficulty of the task before us, are the three things that discourage us the most. Please pray for us. We are trying to do something at BU that no one has done before. We are looking to God to move on this campus in a way he has not moved in 150 years; in a way that will be unique to this generation; in a way that will change not just Boston, but the whole world.
Psalm 71:14-18
But as for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more. My mouth will tell of your righteousness, of your salvation all day long, though I know not its measure. I will come and proclaim your mighty acts, O Sovereign Lord; I will proclaim your righteousness, yours alone. Since my youth, O God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds. Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your might to all who are to come.
Thank you, for praying for us, for standing with us and for partnering with us to reach an unreached people, here in New England. Your commitment to our ministry is one of the most important parts of what we do here. Again, and continually, we say thanks.
